Brave Face
by KTxx
Summary: "Everyone knows," Haley whispered, leaning her head against the window. "Everyone knows about what?" he asked with a frown. "Us." Naley. Set between 1x08 and 1x09. One-shot.


_It's you and me against the world today._

''Hey,'' Haley greeted casually as she slid into the passenger seat of her _boyfriend's_ SUV, the one that he had just parked outside her house to pick her up for school, even though she could have easily taken the bus. She was trying to act as nonchalant as possible, because this was all so new to her. She had no idea what do, how to act. While Nathan on the other hand was the schools man-whore, he was way too experienced for her. But she couldn't stay away, she was falling for him, and it wasn't stopping. She didn't even want it to.

A pout formed on Nathan's lips. She wasn't like this two days ago when she practically pounced on him when he told her that he wanted to be _good enough to be seen with her _or yesterday when he ran over to her and moved her hair from her pretty little face. Now she was acting so tense, like she didn't want it to happen. ''You okay, babe?''

Heat rose to her cheeks at the pet name, _babe._ And she couldn't control the smile forming on her face when she looked at him, he was too cute. ''Yeah,'' she nodded, fastening her seat belt and smiling at him, feeling slightly breathless from her racing heart, which always seemed to happen when she was around her _boyfriend._

''You sure?''

''Yeah,'' she repeated. ''Why?''

Nathan thought about it for a second, still smirking at the blush he had caused to appear. He still wondered how far that travelled down her body... ''You look _scared._''

Haley rolled her eyes, accompanied with an unattractive snort. ''Why would I be scared?''

''I don't know,'' he shrugged. ''Maybe because I'm so sexy?''

''As if.''

''Whatever,'' Nathan laughed, leaning over and kissing her cheek, causing his lips to _burn_. ''We better not be late to school, my girlfriend doesn't like to be late, she's a tutor, you know.''

Haley thought the urge to touch the cheek he just kissed. It warmed everywhere, even though it felt like her cheek was now on fire. It warmed her heart almost as much, because she _loved_ the fact that he wasn't pressuring her. She just smiled at his lame 'joke'. ''Really?'' she asked coyly, playing along.

Nathan started the engine and drove out of the street, a little _too_ fast. ''Yeah, she's also _really_ beautiful.''

''That's a lie,'' she told him, not bothering to play along anymore.

''No it's not.'' Nathan denied, glancing at her with a frown. What's gotten into her? ''What's gotten into you?''

Haley shrugged, looking out of the window, knowing she couldn't lie to his face. ''Nothing.''

''Tell me,'' he urged softly. ''Did someone say something?'' Nathan asked in a louder tone, feeling his blood boil and his fist clench around the steering wheel at the thought of someone hurting _his girl._

She shrugged again. ''No.'' Another lie.

''Tell me,'' he repeated. Even though they've not known each other for that long, and have only been on one date (that failed miserably, because of him and his stupid pride.) but he has these crazy, powerful feelings for her which he's can't explain, because he's never experienced this before, not even with Peyton. And if _his girl_ is upset, then he wants to hurt whoever made her feel that way.

''Everyone knows,'' Haley whispered, leaning her head against the window, quite shocked that she had revealed her fear.

''Everyone knows about what?''

''Us.''

Nathan smiled in amusement. ''Well Tim knows, so yeah everyone probably does know. So what?''

Haley looked at him incredulously, with wide eyes to match. ''_So what?_ Everyone knows that me, nerdy, short, tutor girl is dating you, popular, _tall_, basketball star.''

Luckily, they had reached the school, because Nathan would have had to stop the car in surprise by what she just said. Had she really been thinking about it that much? Well, of course she had. Like she said, she's tutor girl. But that wasn't a bad thing, so why was she acting like it was?

Nathan parked the car in _his_ spot, he cut the engine and turned to face her, but she was looking straight ahead, he could see how tense she was from here, and he just wanted to make her feel better. ''Yes, you're a nerd. Yes, you're short. Yes, you're tutor girl. _So what?_''

Haley looked at him strangely, as if to say _that's not a good thing._

''Its great thing,'' he promised, as if he just read her mind. ''If you weren't a nerd, then you wouldn't be a tutor, then I wouldn't have met you, and we wouldn't be here, right now. If you weren't small, then I wouldn't be able to feel like I could protect you, and when you give me a hug, you're head wouldn't lean on my chest, because you'd be too tall. And if you weren't tutor girl, then you wouldn't be _you._''

''Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing.'' she muttered, still not looking at him. His words almost turned her into a pile of goo, but those words kept spinning around in her mind. _Nathan Scott's dating that tutor nerd? Ugh, that's gross. I mean, since when did he get desperate? Even that asshole's too good for her. _Haley had overheard Callum Tornton saying that yesterday while she was at her locker, but she presumed that Callum knew she was there, trying to get to her. Which successfully it did.

Nathan undone his seatbelt and grabbed her face softly, turning her face toward him so she was looking directly at him. His blue eyes staring into her brown ones. Opposites. That wasn't a bad thing, he knew that now. But now Haley had to know it too.

''Hey, hey.'' he hushed, his hands not leaving her face which was inches away from his. ''Don't be stupid. You're amazing, Hales. What's making you doubt it?''

''Remember our first date,'' she whispered. ''Remember how it was so hilarious that you were out on a date with me?''

_Ouch. Damn it, Tim._

''Well that was just Tim, one person.'' Haley continued, feeling the hurt in her chest, like she couldn't breathe, or _maybe_ that was because they are so close right now. ''Everyone knows know, what are they gonna say? Well, what else are they gonna say?''

Nathan frowned, feeling this unfamiliar pain in his stomach, with even more anger. ''What do you mean? Who said something?''

''Callum Tornton.''

''And what did she say?''

Haley took a deep breath, hoping a batch of tears wouldn't form in her eyes like they did when she heard the football player say it. ''You're _way_ too good for me.''

_That's not true,_ that was Nathan's immediate though. How dare this dick (who was so jealous of him, yeah, he knows these things.) say something so mean about _his girl_. He's made _his girl_ insecure about herself. He's made _his girl _cry_._ He's made _his girl_ feel like she's not good enough. ''That's not true.''

''Yes, yes it is.''

''No it's not.'' he said sternly, giving her a soft kiss on the lips. ''I meant what I said the other day, you know. I want to be the guy who's good enough to be seen with you.'' Nathan told her. ''God, I don't even get why you're with me, I've been such an ass to you... to Lucas.'' he admitted, surprising both of them by the words they didn't ever think would ever come out of his mouth.

''I'm with you... I'm with you because you make me feel different_, special_.'' Haley told him, with the first real smile of the day. ''Plus, you're not horrible to look at.'' she joked, repeating the words from their first date.

Nathan finally dropped his hands from her face, instead he moved them to the back of her head, bringing her face to his and giving her a more heated kiss. Their tongues battled for dominance as Haley ran her hands through his raven black hair, while he ran his hands up and down her back, trying to keep his control. He was trying not to push her, it was different with them, and he wasn't going to push her away.

When they broke apart they grinned at each other, Haley instantly felt her fears wash away. She knew that today was going to be hard, but she also knew that Nathan was going to be there to help her through it.

''_Put your brave face on,_'' Nathan sang, completely out of tune. He knew he was acting like a complete dork, but the smile that appeared on her face made it completely worth it. ''_The one you wore when you stole my heart. Won't you hold my hand? We'll jump together into anything that could possibly happen. 'Cause we're still so young, a-_''

Haley put her hand over his mouth, stopping him from 'singing' any further. She couldn't help but laugh at his attempt at singing, he sounded completely awful. But her heart tingled over what he just did to cheer her up. ''Oh God, that was terrible.''

Nathan rolled his eyes with a scoff. ''You know it was awesome.''

She was the only one who saw him like this, no one else. This carefree, jokey, dorky side to him. People would tease him for acting like this, or totally bash him. But not her, she just joined in with his silliness, or just played along. They were like a perfect match, completely.

''Okay,'' she said with playful sarcasm, rolling her eyes too. ''C'mon rock star, the bells about to go, we're gonna be late.''

Nathan opened his car door as Haley mirrored his actions; they met at the hood of the car, smiling at each other lovingly.

''It's gonna be okay, you know.'' Nathan told her softly, giving her a sweet kiss, making her knee's go weak. ''We're gonna get through this together, okay? No matter what, _together._''

Haley nodded, grinning at him, unknowingly taking his breath away. ''Okay.''

Then he took her hand in his, and they walked towards the school, heads held high.

Together.

* * *

**AN: **Another random one-shot. Listened to the song, had the idea, wrote it down. Its 3:15 in the morning in the UK, so I'm going to be _very_ tired in the morning... _yawn._ Anyways, hope you liked this. It was just some fluffy season one-ness, and I know it was short, but that's all it was meant to be. I don't know if anyone's done something like this before, but I swear I didn't copy.

Oh, the song was 'Brave Face' by 'Delta Goodrem', and I don't own it. Or OTH either, if I did then Naley would have loads more screen time and we would have some _drama_!

Review and I'll love you _forever._ Don't worry; you don't have to love me back or anything...


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